I am not a race fan. The closest I have come to being one is remembering younger years watching the Indy 500 on TV and still recall the terrible Swede Savage accident that I have only seen once in my life but through the magic of today’s technology I can enter it in Google and relive the accident again. In 2008, long after not seeing the race on television for a good number of years, I was able to experience the race in person for the first time and was simply amazed by every aspect of it.
For NASCAR I obviously knew it existed, and even recognize some of the bigger names that have built its history, but I have never come to the point where I saw a race on TV, never mind in person. So, this year, when there was an opportunity to tag along with a customer from France who was very interested in seeing the race, the answer was simple — count me in.
We stayed in the Orlando area and got to the track in just enough time to park and make it to our seats for the 1:00 PM start time and when the race was over we did pretty much the same to head out of town as soon as possible. So, besides seeing the starts of post race tailgating all over the area (as far out at the Home Depot parking lot where our car was) we did not have a chance to experience anything outside of the actual race itself.
 US Air Force Thunderbirds At the opening ceremony Martina McBride did an outstanding job singing the national anthem. For those looking for their first ‘car wreck’ with the words being sung they were sorely disappointed on this one. The fly over at the end by the US Air Force Thunderbirds, however brief, makes me want to go to an air show again. It has been far too many years between seeing the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels in person.
 Drafting with their Partners You only get one chance in your life to experience the cars coming around the track at full speed for the first time. Nothing delivered by television has ever come close. Though NASCAR was still amazing from this standpoint it was still not on the order of the Indy 500. However, the amazing difference that I never expected was seeing how the cars partner up and draft behind each other. The photo above was taken at a 1/5000 of a second shutter speed and randomly caught on a high speed burst of photos with the lens fixed. Yes, they are moving at full speed and yes, they do run that close to each other all around the track. (The average speed was 130MPH)
 Waltrip & Reutimann Create 17-Car Pileup Though the days of Swede Savage are thankfully gone, at least for the most part due to all of the changes in race technology that have happened over the years, seeing a crash is person is not a happy moment. It was interesting to note the yells of excitement by the people surrounding us. My positive bias interprets this as being cheerful their driver was not involved – but it might be more of other drivers being eliminated from the competition. Then there is the practical matter – are there just too many cars on the track at the start?
 Tony Stewart Finally, the most interesting observation for myself was the amount of shuffling that was going on in positioning. Someone we know is a fan of car #14 and seeing it jump around on the position poll throughout the race was amazing. At the end, when the caution flag was thrown, I believe it was in second place and after the two full speed laps to finish the race it dropped back to 13th! There were 74 lead changes during the race leading one of the people I went with to make the comment that you could almost forget the first 150 laps of the race – heck, perhaps even more. Besides elimination, through accident or other failure, position seemed to not matter at all until the last lap.
The video I took from the event was largely me still learning about how a Canon 7D works when it comes to the task so although it is not great it is amazing what you can get from an DSLR with little to no experience on the video side and the built in microphone.
So it might be a little late. Christmas has past. The New Year is here. However, before it is too late to celebrate the end of a great year, amongst other things, even with all of the challenges, and to look forward to an outstanding 2011 I would like to offer a $50 iTunes gift certificate giveaway under the following rules:
- You need to follow me on Twitter @jraymonds (If you already do — just proceed to step two!)
- You need to tweet the following: “What a Tweet opportunity! Follow @jraymonds for a chance at a $50 iTunes gift. See the compete rules at http://tinyurl.com/4g7jbx7″
- For each 50 unique tweets a person will be chosen at random to receive a $50 iTunes gift certificate.
- Tweets will only be counted once for each unique Twitter user ID and you must be a follower of @jraymonds for it to count as well.
- A maximum of $1,000 in iTunes gift certificates will be given away and all random drawings will take place on February 28th, 2011.
- Winners will be contacted via a direct message and after receiving their email address they will be emailed the $50 certificate.
- If winner does not respond to the direct message before March 4th, 2011 their opportunity at the $50 certificate will be cancelled without being replaced with someone else.
- If more than 1,000 people follow and tweet the above message then only 20 people will be chosen out of the whole bunch.
- Yes, only iTunes certificates will be given out. As Jeffrey Lee “Jeff” Probst might say, if you do not use iTunes then I got nothin’ for ya.
- If there is any contradiction, loophole, or unintended consequence of the above rules there is only one final judge on what to do: me.
- One last thing – please keep it fair. If I see some craziness like people opening brand new multiple Twitter accounts with no activity, and with the only purpose of making more entries, then the contest will either be filtered from these accounts or suspended entirely. He may not follow you but @Jesus might just be watching you!
For example, if by 12:00 AM EST February 13th of 2011, 515 followers of mine on Twitter tweet the above phrase at least once each. Then 10 of them would be chosen randomly for a $50 iTunes gift certificate. Have a blast, buy an App, or better yet – buy a great song. Music can be one of the strongest anchors to a powerful and positive state! So, spread the news – obviously if I do not see at least 50 tweets of the message then no one wins anything!
I hope to have interesting news to report during the course of 2011. Perhaps an old game coming out in full force for the iOS…any guesses as to what it might be? More travel adventures, perhaps some business and life lessons learned, and maybe a report about an interesting partnership coming together. I cannot promise you a feed that fits all of your interests but the frequency of traffic is low enough to (ad)venture a few clicks without being annoying!
 Image via Wikipedia
Thanksgiving may have origins of thanks for a bountiful harvest, however, bounty is relative. As the song from the Zac Brown Band goes:
And its funny how it`s the little things in life that mean the most
Not where you live, what you drive or the price tag on your clothes
There`s no dollar sign on a piece of mind; this I`ve come to know
So if you agree have a drink with me
Raise your glasses for a toast
To a little bit of chicken fried
A roof over your head, family at the table, food within your reach, and someone who believes in you is something the kids Rupert Boneham helps via his Rupert’s Kids organization do not have access to before being transformed through mentorship. Last weekend I was glad to support the organization by attending the annual Tuxes and Tennies fund raiser. Before the live auction started for the night there was an interesting game in which someone would win a $250 credit to use in the auction. At first everyone in the room was allowed to buy into the game with $5 and simply call a coin toss. Those that got it right stayed in and those who did not sat down. It was fun and my focus was giving my son a $5 bill and seeing him work through the tosses. With a geometric reduction it does not take long to narrow the crowd down and, when maybe a couple of dozen people were still standing, you had a chance to buy in again but this time at $20. Being eliminated earlier my son went back in with a $20 bill and off they went again.
The thing is my heart was pulled to my right. It is one of those moments when you do not know why something happens and it is just a clue to follow. The third, and final, buy in was up and I handed the one Rupert’s Kid that was sitting at our table $50 and asked if he wanted to go up. He grabbed it and…
He won! He won the $250 credit. Which is great, but now I am thinking, okay, what the heck is he going to do with it? Buy a stay in a vacation home in Florida with it? As it turned out there was a new leather recliner donated from Costco that was a part of the live auction I had not even noticed. It was the only thing that was possibly useful for this young man and, yes, by God, he managed to win it with the credit he received for winning the coin toss game.
A new recliner to go into a new apartment he was just moving into after turning his life around with the help of Rupert’s Kids. That moment for me was probably the most significant event for the entire year and what it meant to him I cannot even imagine.
Gratitude is the foundation of all success and fulfillment in life. Follow your heart, help others, make it happen.
Or, some helpful hints about what to do if you lose yours…
As mentioned in a previous post I had the interesting fortune of discovering my wallet was missing just landing at LAX after a late night flight from the east coast. Upon landing I boarded the shuttle to take us over to the rental car place and during the short trip I noticed it was gone. Yes, I do keep it in my back pocket – a terrible place that has, however, worked for the past 30 plus years I have been keeping one there.
What happened? The entire trip from start to beginning was somewhat late at night and none of the places where I walked had many people – never mind someone who was actually close to me. I believe the scenario of a pickpocket, though possible, is somewhat remote because of these facts. More likely I lost it out of my pocket due to wearing a pair of new brand jeans (for me) as I squirmed to get some sleep in a seat that just would not recline far enough to be comfortable.
Hence, I really thought the airline would be able to recover it. I called immediately and the first snag I encountered was the late hour yielding no one at LAX who could help. So started the waiting game with a case opened both directly by myself with the airline and American Express doing the same thing for me. Amex called me everyday for the 72 hour period they said they would but in the end nothing was found and to date nothing has been returned through any other channel either.
The second snag was a lot bigger than not being able to get a hold of anyone at the airport – it was the fact that I could not leave the rental car lot without a driver’s license. I keep a copy of everything with me yet for a renting a car this does not help in regard to a license. Luckily I was able to get a taxi voucher from the manager and that at least got us to the hotel room in Woodland Hills, CA. All of the credit cards I was traveling with were in the lost wallet so the last thing I did before hitting the sheets was to cancel all of them – none of which had any charges on them that were not mine as of yet.
For the rest of the trip I was fortunate enough to not need any cash and the only charge I made was having American Express book me a limo back to LAX to get on the plane home. All things considered I got off pretty lucky and learned a few things for the future. First, what did I do right?
- I had a copy of everything in my wallet. Having a copy of my license did not help securing a rental car but it certainly made the job of calling all of the credit card companies either for help or to cancel cards a much easier process especially at midnight (or what was really 3:00 AM on my internal clock). I have passed on any offer of a credit card company to consolidate this process for me and at least in this case I do not believe it really would have made anything any easier. It was good to personally know things were taken care of and what else I needed to do (as in the case of my debit card) to get a replacement when I returned home. Since I live in the world of ‘geek’ my ‘copies’ are all on my iPhone – stored in a secure app that I need to enter a PIN to access.
- I took passports as identification. For some reason I never take out my driver’s license anymore for traveling domestically. This simple fact saved me from total insanity for the rest of the trip as the passports were not with my wallet. It seems if you are not fortunate enough to have backup ID with you, filing a police report immediately upon discovering your loss is a great idea to enable a more productive conversation with the TSA later. Luckily for me I did not need to test this theory!
What could I have done better?
- I should have had backup cash separate from my wallet. In fact I usually do just this, yet since it was a short trip I only had a very limited amount of cash in my travel bag that I conserved the heck out of. The lesson learned is no trip is too short not have more cash stored somewhere.
- I should have divided my credit cards between my wallet and somewhere else. In this case I literally had to cancel everything I had minus the one card I kept at home.
- I should not keep my wallet in my back pocket. However, in this case I think I am going to continue to ‘should on myself’ and keep it there anyway. I might shift it to a bag to get comfortable in a similar situation but so far one incident in thirty plus years is not a bad track record.
- I did not have the luxury on this trip but if there is ever a chance to have a backup driver (with obviously their own license) it is something to keep in mind. Having a backup license, at least in the state of New Jersey, however, is illegal.
What did I learn?
- Credit card companies, especially like American Express, will help you with your needs but they are not going to have any magic wands to get you back in action immediately. The copies of the information that my wallet contained along with the backup ID saved my whole trip and no one is going to do this for you.
Weeks later I have a new wallet, everything in it replaced, and have updated all of my copies to reflect the new information. Next time I will travel smarter and with a little luck this might truly be the first and last time this happens.
Just over a week ago I had the amazing opportunity to spend some moments with James Cameron, Tim Ferriss, and a few other notables in support of the X PRIZE Foundation. To begin with, I learned a lot about the X PRIZE Foundation itself. I had always known its name for the Ansari X Prize in which $10,000,000 was offered to the first NGO to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. I had no idea that the concept of encouraging quantum leaps in developments of all areas is what the Foundation had evolved into. That alone was worth the trip out to Southern California!
Taking a brief moment of one on one time with James Cameron I also had a chance to learn a little more about his own adventure into the ‘deep space’ of the ocean. I knew he was working on a personal project to build a manned craft to visit the deepest part of the ocean floor. The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is 10,924 meters (35,840 feet) below sea level. That is an astounding 6.8 miles under water. Amazingly the first, and only successful, manned trip to this depth occurred on January 23, 1960 by two hydronaunts aboard the The Bathyscaphe Trieste. It was a huge (51 t, 60′ long) sub which I believe was tethered. It took something like 5 hours to reach bottom and only stayed down for around 20 minutes – and this after part of it blew in from the tremendous pressures.
James is looking at a project that is obviously taking advantage of all of the developments in materials over the past 50 years and is targeting a completion of his undertaking in either late 2011 or early 2012. I have not done the math, yet I wondered what test facilities are available for such a project considering how unusual the environment this sub will need to be operating in. James said his entire pressure vessel fits inside the one place he knows about that has a 60″ in diameter by around 8′ deep testing cylinder. When asked about the ballasts and power, for not only a successful descent but also a safe return, he mention the fact that a lot of the foams and such that are specced to work at such depths turn out not to, and a lot of the work he is going through deals with solving these problems as well. The planned journey to the bottom is a short 70 minutes and given the positioning of the pilot, and the direct viewing ability, a lot of the observation will be accomplished via an HD camera. As if there would be someone else destined for the job, I did ask who the pilot would be and it will indeed be James himself.
Perhaps it is my mild claustrophobia but I simply cannot imagine going down to that depth completely alone. He will be untethered (as he mentioned that in itself is a major obstacle to be avoided given the tremendous length of cable needed complicated by shifting currents and so on) and there will be no communication with the surface. Unlike space the only way to keep a data stream in place that bridges that much salt water is through the use of a tether. I wish him the best of luck on the journey and truly wish I could be there to witness it if only waiting for what I am sure would seem like an eternity on the surface. Peter Diamandis joked about having an X PRIZE for such an achievement as the answer for James is the Foundation does not offer prizes for work that is going to be done anyway without them.
James’ love for exploration has always been present. When he started looking at the Titanic story there was an opportunity to spend ‘X’ millions of dollars on CG to do the present day scenes of exploring the depths of the wreck or spend the same ‘X’ millions of dollars and do it for real. Hence, the reason for making the movie in the first place – as an excuse to dive the wreck in person. Well, okay, perhaps not the total reason but certainly a wonderful side benefit that has turned into an ongoing passion.
When asked about Avatar he is evaluating the idea of two sequels to be filmed at the same time. On the current 3D craze he says you can tell how movies are using the technology when it comes to branding. He made ‘Avatar’ not ‘Avatar 3D’. For his film the technology was used to take you one step closer to experiencing a world that bridged the science fiction dreams of his youth combined with a sensitivity of the environment and the sustainability the of the future. I also asked about looking back at his previous films and if he had any thoughts about what is normally not possible in the film business (unless you count remakes) – the concept of a bug fix version. His basic answer is you cannot look back but with that said what could be done with the final sequence of the Abyss with the ship rising to the surface and with the monster in Alien would be simply amazing utilizing today’s technologies.
 JR and Tim Ferriss Though I ended up spending more time with James Cameron than I would have imagined I was actually more excited to be meeting Tim Ferriss in person. I felt like a dork getting my copy of the ‘4-Hour Work Week‘ signed and taking a photo with the life experimenter extraordinaire but when it came down to business it was fun to compare my Contour HD with his GoPro. Frak! Just when I thought I had the greatest compact sports focused camcorder I see something perhaps even more amazing – and waterproof? This might just turn into a must have! I cannot wait to see what the result of his shooting is to make a direct comparison under obviously similar circumstances.
 4-Hour Work Week Okay, and what circumstances brought us all together in support of the X PRIZE Foundation? Another chance to go Zero-G! Based on the tremendous experience I had the first time around with Buzz Aldrin this was something I just could not pass on doing again. The second time around I experimented a lot more: I spent most of the pulls sitting up as opposed to lying down (the suggested position). I did a number of spinning tumbles becoming quite disorientated at the end of them when ‘feet down’ was called. Though I did not brave it myself I did see Tim make an interesting attempt at wearing a water goggle. You see in zero-G if you squirt water into your eye socket it just stays there which I am sure is an interesting effect when trying to look at the world from the other side. For me, maybe that is something I will try on my next flight! The real difference on this flight was being able to observe more of my surroundings while still being able to participate. The unfortunate similarity with my first flight, however, is that it all still went by in the blink of an eye.
 JR in Zero-G So what about the lost wallet? Well, that was there for the journey too – as much as something that is truly lost could ever be that is. Upon landing at LAX and getting on the rental car shuttle I found myself reaching for something that was no longer there. My best guess is it worked itself free during my squirming to get comfortable on a late night flight and someone found it, cashed it, and dumped it. It is only a guess but it is the best one I have since a call to the airline turned up nothing and I cannot imagine that something more nefarious happened as due to the late hour there were not many people around anywhere close to me. I will save the longer story for a separate entry but the bottom line is somehow everything still came together for an unforgettable experience.
The below is just a very short video from the flight – check back later for hopefully a longer version!
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